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On this day: October 2

2009: The International Olympic Committee awards the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, choosing the Brazilian city over Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. Pictured is Maracanã Stadium, which will serve as the site of the 2016 Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies, in addition to the Olympic soccer finals.

2006: Five school girls are murdered and five more are injured by Charles Carl Roberts in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, before Roberts commits suicide.

2005: Comedian Nipsey Russell, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s and for playing the Tin Man in "The Wiz," dies at age 87 in New York City, after suffering from stomach cancer.

2002: A man is shot and killed in a grocery store parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland, becoming the first victim in a series of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, that would leave 10 dead and three critically injured over three weeks. It was later discovered that the rampage was perpetrated by John Allen Muhammad with the assistance of 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo. Muhammad would eventually be sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on Nov. 10, 2009, while Malvo was sentenced to a total of eight life sentences without the possibility of parole.

2001: NATO backs U.S. military strikes following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, invoking Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in history. The article says that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all.

2000: Radiohead releases its fourth album, "Kid A." The album went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom and became the first Radiohead release to debut at No. 1 in the United States.

1998: Gene Autry, who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s, dies at the age of 91 in Studio City, California. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of "The Gene Autry Show" television series. Autry, shown here in 1980, was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.

1994: Singer and actress Harriet Nelson, best known for her role on the long-running sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" alongside her real-life family, dies of congestive heart failure at age 85 in Laguna Beach, California.

1992: The movie "Glengarry Glen Ross," starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris and Kevin Spacey, opens in theaters. The drama, adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play of the same name, depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen and how they become desperate when the corporate office sends a trainer to "motivate" them by announcing that, in one week, all except the top two salesmen will be fired. Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film.

1990: Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 is hijacked by a passenger seeking asylum in Taiwan. With fuel running low, the pilot attempted to land at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, but the hijacker wrestled the controls away, sending the jet crashing into two airliners on the ground and killing 132 people.

1985: Actor Rock Hudson, known for his leading man roles in the 1950s and '60s, becomes the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness when he passes away at age 59 in Beverly Hills, California.

1977: The bodies of Elvis Presley and his mother are moved to Graceland's Meditation Garden (pictured). The bodies had originally been interred at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, but were moved after three people were arrested on Aug. 29, 1977, after trying to steal Presley's remains.

1973: Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, who dominated distance running in the early 20th century, dies from multiple complications of atherosclerosis at age 76 in Helsinki, Finland. Nurmi set 22 official world records at distances between 1,500 meters and 20 kilometers, and won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in his 12 events in the Olympic Games in 1920, 1924 and 1928.

1973: The crime drama "Mean Streets," starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro and directed by Martin Scorsese, premieres at the New York Film Festival.

1973: Actor Efren Ramirez, best known for playing Pedro Sánchez in the 2004 movie "Napoleon Dynamite," is born in Los Angeles, California.

1971: Singer Tiffany, the '80s pop star best known for her 1987 remake of the song "I Think We're Alone Now," is born Tiffany Renee Darwish in Norwalk, California.

1970: A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators and supporters crashes into a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 people.

1970: Actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa, best known for the soap opera "All My Children," the sitcom "Hope & Faith" and the morning talk show "Live! with Kelly and Michael," is born in Stratford, New Jersey.

1969: At the end of its first season, the MLB team Seattle Pilots lose its last game in Seattle 3-1 to the Oakland Athletics in front of an attendance of 5,473. The owners of the team would file for bankruptcy during the offseason and the team would move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 1, 1970, and change their name to the Brewers.

1967: Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first black justice of United States Supreme Court. Marshall would serve on the court for the next 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects against the government.

1965: The McCoys' "Hang On Sloopy" hits No. 1 on the charts.

1959: The TV series "The Twilight Zone" premieres. Each episode of the show, hosted and created by Rod Serling, featured a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist. The show quickly became a popular and critical success and would run for 156 episodes over five seasons.

1957: The British World War II film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa, and directed by David Lean, premieres in London, England. The movie would go on to win seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Guinness.

1955: "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" debuts on television. The show, an anthology series featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries hosted by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, would run for 10 seasons before ending on May 10, 1965.

1954: Actress Lorraine Bracco, best known for "The Sopranos" and seen here in the TNT drama "Rizzoli & Isles," is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1951: Musician and actor Sting, best known as a member of the rock band The Police and for his solo work, is born under the birth name Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in Wallsend, England.

1950: The comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz is first published in nine newspapers. The first strip is four panels long and shows Charlie Brown walking by two other young children, Shermy and Patty. Shermy lauds Charlie Brown as he walks by, but then tells Patty how he hates him in the final panel.

1949: Photographer Annie Leibovitz, known for her portraits of celebrities for Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair and other magazines, is born in Waterbury, Connecticut.

1948: Country music singer-songwriter and rodeo performer Chris LeDoux, best known for songs such as "This Cowboy's Hat," "Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy" and "Cadillac Ranch," is born in Biloxi, Mississippi. LeDoux sang and recorded songs in his spare time and sold his albums from the back of his truck before gaining recognition from a mention in the 1989 Garth Brooks song "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" and signing his first major label record deal. LeDoux died of cholangiocarcinoma at the age of 56 on March 9, 2005.

1945: Singer-songwriter Don McLean, best known for his 1971 song "American Pie," is born in New Rochelle, New York.

1942: The RMS Queen Mary accidentally sinks one of her escort ships, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast with a loss of 239 lives. The Queen Mary, seen here in 1945 arriving in New York City, was carrying thousands of American troops of the 29th Infantry Division to join the Allied forces in Europe at the time.

1937: Warner Bros. releases "Love is on the Air," featuring the movie debut of a 26-year-old Ronald Reagan.

1920: The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates play in the third, and last, triple-header in MLB history. The Reds won two of the three games. Triple headers are now prohibited under the current collective bargaining agreement, except when the first game is the conclusion of a game suspended from a prior date.

1919: President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke, leaving him paralyzed on his left side and blind in his left eye. He would be confined to bed for weeks, then have to use a wheelchair and a cane to get around. With few exceptions, he was kept out of the presence of Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, his cabinet and Congressional visitors to the White House for the remainder of his term. Here he's seen in his first posed photograph after his stroke, taken from his right, non-paralyzed side with wife Edith holding a document steady while he signs. The full extent of his disability was kept from the public until after his death on Feb. 3, 1924.

1904: Author Graham Greene, best known for novels such as "The Power and the Glory," "The Confidential Agent," "The Third Man," "The Quiet American" and "Our Man in Havana," is born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. He died of leukemia at the age of 86 on April 3, 1991.

1895: Comedian and actor Bud Abbott (left), who would go on to form one-half of the famous comedy duo Abbott and Costello with Lou Costello, is born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He died of cancer at the age of 78 on April 24, 1974.

1890: Groucho Marx, who would go on to find fame as an actor and comedian with The Marx Brothers, is born under the birth name Julius Henry Marx in New York City. He was best known for the 13 films he made with his siblings and for hosting the radio and television game show "You Bet Your Life." He was also known for his distinctive appearance, which included an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. He died at age 86 on Aug. 19, 1977.

1869: Political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi is born in Porbandar, India. He would become known for his advocacy of non-violent resistance to fight tyranny. He was shot and killed at age 78 on Jan. 30, 1948, by a Hindu extremist who thought he was too sympathetic to India's Muslims.

1836: Charles Darwin returns to England after five years of acquiring knowledge around the world about fauna, flora, wildlife and geology aboard the HMS Beagle. He would use the information to develop his "theory of evolution," which he detailed in his 1859 book "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection."

1835: The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales. Mexican soldiers attempted to retrieve a small cannon that had been given to the people of Gonzales, Texas, to protect themselves from Comanche raids, but encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.

1803: American revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, who was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the fourth governor of Massachusetts, dies at age 81 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1800: Nat Turner, who would go on to lead a short-lived, violent slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, is born in Southampton County, Virginia.

1780: British Army Maj. John Andre is hanged as a spy in Tappan, New York, after being captured Sept. 23 carrying information about the plans of Benedict Arnold to surrender the fort at West Point, New York, to the British.

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